Parliamentary elections – current: Sunak suspends Tory candidates Craig Williams and Laura Saunders over betting scandal

The Conservative Party has announced that it has withdrawn its support from the two candidates being investigated by the Gambling Commission.

A party spokesman said: “Based on ongoing internal investigations, we have concluded that we can no longer support Craig Williams and Laura Saunders as candidates for Parliament in the upcoming general election.”

“We have asked the Gambling Commission that this decision does not affect the investigations it is conducting, as these are rightly independent and ongoing.”

This came as Rishi Sunak faced growing pressure to suspend the Tories, who were accused of betting on the general election within the party.

The Prime Minister had previously ruled out suspending the candidates until the independent panel had completed its investigation and found them guilty.

Following Laura Saunders’s resignation from the Conservative Party, there is still no Tory candidate in the Bristol North West electorate to replace her.

Here is a list of the remaining candidates:

• Liberal Democrat, Caroline Gooch
• Labour, Darren Jones
• Reform UK, Scarlett O’Connor
• Green, Mary Page
• Social Democratic Party, Ben Smith

The Conservatives’ former Brexit minister asked why the party had delayed the decision to sack Laura Saunders and Craig Williams.

The Conservative peer tweeted: “In the end we get there. But why has it taken us so long to reach a decision that seemed so necessary from the start?”

Sir Keir Starmer has reacted to the news that Craig Williams and Laura Saunders have been dropped as Tory candidates.

The Labour leader criticised the move for not being made sooner, telling reporters: “Why didn’t he (Rishi Sunak) do this last week?”

Sir Keir had previously called on Rishi Sunak to suspend those involved in the scandal and branded the Prime Minister “too weak” for a leadership role.

Ms Saunders, the Tory candidate for Bristol North West, is also currently being investigated by the Gambling Commission (GC) over allegations that she may have inside knowledge of the Prime Minister’s decision to call a snap election on July 4.

Ms Saunders has worked for the party since 2015 and was married to Tony Lee, the Conservative Party’s campaign manager. Mr Lee has since taken a leave of absence after it came to light that he was the third person to be investigated by the Governor-General.

According to the BBC, which first named Ms Saunders as the candidate under investigation, she most recently worked in the party’s international department at the Conservatives’ campaign headquarters, which works with other centre-right parties around the world.

Craig Williams, the Prime Minister’s parliamentary private secretary, was the first person to be implicated in the scandal, reports Matt Mathers.

He admitted placing a bet on the election before Mr Sunak’s announcement after being approached by a journalist.

The 39-year-old Tory candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr placed a £100 bet with Ladbrokes at odds of 5/1 and could have won £500. However, because his name appeared as a potential “politically exposed person”, the bet was not registered.

This prompted the Gambling Commission to write to all firms demanding details of all bets made after May 1 on elections in July, which it is now combing through.

Accordingly The guardwhich first reported the story, Mr Williams placed his bet through an online account that required him to provide personal information such as his date of birth and debit card. The bookmaker also knows the location of the bet.

Mr Williams apologised after admitting he had placed the bet but refused to comment further while the GC conducted its investigation.

“I clearly made a major error of judgement, that is for sure, and I apologize for that,” he said. “I will not elaborate on my statement because this is an independent process.”

A Home Secretary said he shared former Olympic rower and Tory candidate James Cracknell’s frustration over the gambling scandal. Kate Devlin reports.

Earlier this week, the Olympian, who is running as the Conservative candidate, described the party as a “shitfest” and said in a social media video: “If any of my teammates were caught cheating, they would be dead to me.”

Asked about the “frustration” expressed by voters and Mr Cracknell, Mr Tomlinson told Sky News: “That’s true and I share his frustration. I agree with the frustration that has been expressed and more than frustration, it’s also about anger.”

Actor Idris Elba attended a Labour Party event on knife crime alongside Sir Keir Starmer.

The “Thor” actor, who has been a vocal advocate for tackling violence in London, agreed with the Labour leader that a long-term solution was needed.

During his speech in West London, Sir Keir promised a “comprehensive ban on the possession of a wider range of lethal weapons”.

Labour will keep the asylum ship Bibby Stockholm in service if it is elected next week, Yvette Cooper confirmed.

The party has said it cannot end use of the ship immediately if it wins the general election, but wants to end the need for barges and hotels “as soon as possible”. The shadow home secretary was asked about Labour’s plans for Bibby Stockholm, which she has criticised in the past for its “horrendous” costs.

Asked during a debate on Britain’s LBC whether she would deplane asylum seekers on the first day of a Labour government, Ms Cooper said: “No, you obviously can’t do that on the first day.”

“I think we need to put an end to these extortionate barges, military bases and hotels. We want to do that as soon as possible, but the first thing we need to know is that the system is broken. So first and foremost we need to stop small boats from arriving in the first place, and that means we need to break up the criminal gangs.”

Read the full article in the Independent below